Half Days Cragging

The forscast for Sunday was great, but quite warm! So the options were limited to snowy munro's or go for the highest crag we could think of with easy quick access (in case it had melted!)!

Creagan Cha-no, the small crag on Cairngorm over looking Strath Nethy seemed to be our best and perhaps only bet, and besides I'd always wondered what it was like.

Gentle walk in

I was a little worried that it might be busy... as we parked up there were lots of climbers about and a big team from the RAF mountain rescue packing bags and ropes.. Boy was it warm on the 1 hour walk up to the crag at just over 1000m.

Where's this crag

We didn't need to worry the RAF disappeared somewhere else and it wasn't too busy at the crag, in fact I bumped into a couple of climbers from Aberdeen I'd met on Penguin Gully a couple of weeks ago.

Chimney Rib

When we dropped off the rim down to the climbs it felt like an oven with the sun reflecting off the snow. Most of the crag was perfect dry rock that would of been great to climb if we'd had our rock boots.

Huw following up

But we'd come for the winter routes and by looking in the deeper and shaded spots we found 2 great routes to climb, Chimney Rib and Anvil Gully, both great fun and in good condition.

Huw avoiding the cornice 

We both felt happy after the 2 routes, the other teams seemed to be heading home after one route with the Mediterranean conditions so we headed down to Aviemore as Huw was getting twitchy because the 6 Nations was due on.

Anvil Gully

So a perfect day really, nice easy walk, 2 fun climbs, before a big lunch in Aviemore and the Rugby! I must meet up with Huw more often now he's hit middle age!